Bruins now take Islanders seriously

You know how some opponents bring out the best in a team? Well, the New York Islanders this season have brought out the worst in the Bruins.

STEPHEN HARRISBoston Herald

UNIONDALE, N.Y. — You know how some opponents bring out the best in a team? Well, the New York Islanders this season have brought out the worst in the Bruins.

Prominent on the short list of Bruins stinkers have been both games against the Isles, a pair of ugly losses in which the B’s basically gave no-show efforts. Maybe they assumed the two points would be easy, but the young and talented Isles are much too good a club to beat that way.

“We just didn’t come out and play very well against them,” B’s coach Claude Julien said before a brief practice yesterday at aging Nassau Coliseum — for which the Bruins had to stand around waiting an hour while a Squirts game finished.

“I don’t think we played our best. That’s going to be the challenge (tonight), to come out and play our game — play the way we can play. And hopefully we’ll see a difference in the outcome.”

The Bruins are on a pretty good run, with a 4-1-1 record in their last six outings. They are playing solid all-around hockey, and sticking to it for full games. Their 6-1 win in Philadelphia on Saturday afternoon was as dominant as the score suggests.

Now they have to give a legitimate and respectful effort against the Islanders, who will need a big finish to make the playoffs but still are a very capable opponent — which is the message Julien should have little difficulty imparting today.

“I’m not discrediting them, because they did play well (in the first two games),” Julien said. “They beat us cleanly, but I don’t think we gave them our best.

“But this is a pretty good hockey club. Like, they lost a game (Saturday), I thought they’d win against a pretty good St. Louis team.”

The Isles gave up a tying goal with 27 seconds left in regulation, then lost to the Blues in a shootout, dropping to 21-25-8.

“They’re young and every once in a while they might get some ebbs and flows in their games, but they’re a pretty good team,” Julien said. “They’re earning the respect of a lot of teams around the league, including us.”

Bruins winger Milan Lucic acknowledges that his team maybe didn’t treat the Islanders with the proper degree of respect in the first two games — maybe expecting wins to come easily.

“A little bit,” Lucic said. “They’re obviously a different team than what they were the last bunch of years. They’re fighting for their lives, fighting to get back into the position where they can get a playoff spot. They have a long way to go with the hole they dug themselves by (going 0-8-2 from Nov. 19-Dec. 9).

“They’re winning games, with all their guys stepping up, especially their big line (of Thomas Vanek, Kyle Okposo and John Tavares). We can’t expect it to be easy anymore against these guys. They were a playoff team last year. They’re starting to become more the real deal. We’ve got to have a better mindset heading into this one than we did in the first two.

“The last game (a 5-3 loss in Boston on Dec. 31) we went up 3-1 and we took our foot off the gas. That came back to bite us. And the first game (3-1 loss in Uniondale on Nov. 2), we didn’t even come out ready to play.

“So we’ve got to get to that full throttle right away and keep our foot on the gas for the full 60. Since the Dallas game (11 days ago) we’ve been able to find that consistency in our game and throughout our lineup. That’s the most important thing for us, to keep that going.”

And maybe to prove something against the Islanders.

Bruins notes

Zdeno Chara takes the ice against the Islanders, his first NHL team, with career totals of 155-344-499 in 1,104 games. Julien instructed Chara to take a day off yesterday.

“Every once in a while, we force him to stay off,” Julien said. “He’s getting used to it. He hasn’t won a fight yet when I tell him to stay off.”

It sounds doubtful that center Chris Kelly will return to the lineup tonight. He’s been out with a broken leg since Dec. 7.

“I’m not sure on his status,” Julien said. “Again, he’s been out for six weeks or whatever (actually, seven). It’s not as easy as a guy who’s been out for a week or two. So it’s almost like training camp for him. We’re being careful for his sake and for our sake.

“I think he’s excited to come back. The other day (in Philadelphia) we didn’t feel he was ready. We’ll see how he is (yesterday and today). He may (be ready to play), or he may not. But I think he’s getting pretty close.”

Ryan Spooner missed the game in Philly with the flu, but practiced yesterday and likely will play tonight.

“I’m fine now,” he said. “I just took (Saturday) off because I was throwing up in the morning, I couldn’t eat and I just didn’t feel good and I lost a lot of weight. I’m going to try and put that back on. I’m going to the grocery store and buy a bunch of stuff.”